Gremlin's Tall Stories

With the Grand Challenge complete, Monday was a comparatively leisurely affair. Going to bed late the previous evening, missing the usual breakfast affair on Monday morning was an obvious choice. Afterall, with the nice bakery down the road, where's the motivation to get up early?

Up around 9am, packed up, and Toto and I were probably last to leave the holiday park just after 10am. We weren't even going very far, popping down the bakery probably 1km away, where we waited for Toto's mate who was coming from other accomodation down the road. Delicious food, more bike talk (because the previous couple of days were not nearly enough!) and before you know it, its midday. Toto's mate is headed south, with a couple of days off work, so as Toto and I fill in the Shell, we discuss the route north.

Toto wants to go down through the Paraparas (SH4) then back up the Forgotten Highway and head north. I reply that its already after midday, so we don't want to go south too much, and I want to be back in the early evening, rather than late evening. I suggest Forgotten Highway then Awakino Gorge north. Toto agrees, so we mount up and head out via SH41 to Taumaranui. Quick stop there because my GPS and phone aren't talking (its a work day after all) and Toto for the toilet. All sorted, we head out through SH43, the Forgotten Highway. There is some light rain, and we are quickly reminded it can be a bit of a goat track, with slippery slick tar, all assortment of creatures, but stunning scenery nonetheless. There is also the odd bit of debris from trees and some rain adds to the conditions.

Probably half way to the T intersection for Stratford and Ohura, I get confronted with an unusual dilemma. 5-6 cows are standing on the road and roadside as I crest a hill into a small valley. Hardly wanting to become a target for a half ton beast (and I think we all know who would win if it ran at me) I edged closer very cautiously (ie, walking pace). Cows are on either side of the road and one is blocking my lane, so I slowly putter along the oncoming, with both eyes warily looking at all cows for signs of movement. As I am parallel with the cow in my lane (which hasn't flinched) an oncoming car rounds the corner up ahead... as if things weren't complicated enough. A quick flash of my headlights to warn them, and they slow down. I stay slow, waiting for Toto to join me, and once he does, we're off again.

Reaching the T intersection for Stratford and Ohura I elect to stop and wait for Toto to catch up. I look at the road to the right, heading to Ohura like a kid in a candy store. I've never done it before and I had forgotten about it, but it sorta looked like the road that would turn into gravel and make a great adventure. I remind myself that I simply must come back and check out the road. Toto interrupts my thoughts, and as if reading my thoughts, the first comment out of his mouth is, "Hey, we should do that road some time". I replied casually, "Y'know, I was juuust thinking that myself, I think today's the day". I check with Toto he's ok for gas, I have plenty, and on we go.

The road turns out to be fully sealed, but a real mix of roadworks, gravel on top of tar, debris etc, requiring a cautious explorative pace. Ohura is like a deserted town, no-one in sight (must take a pic next time) and Matiere isn't much busier. With the GPS being told to route to Te Kuiti for gas, it keeps prompting me to turn left onto gravel roads. I stop at each one, pleading like a child, with Toto, who is unmoved and unimpressed, instead desiring to remain on the main road. He utters some crude logic about needing to track the main roads first, which I rubbish, saying I do them in any order, as long as they are accurate. This still doesn't make him change his mind, but I note to myself I must be back without this horrible green road anchor to check out the other roads.

Somewhere along the road, dodging all the debris and roadworks, we meet our second batch of cows. Luckily its down a straight, they're still at the other end, but a farmer is driving them towards us with his quad, on our side of the road. With the roads incredibly quiet (the joys of back roads of course) I head into the oncoming, park on the far side, shut the bike off and wait, as it makes it easier for the farmer. As he passes, he stops, and we have a great chat. It turns out we had only just missed the storm that passed through under an hour before (which explained all the bits of leaves and branches) and it was so severe, the farmer was surprised to see his quad on all four wheels when he went to collect it. He declares the roads horrible to ride with all the roadworks when we say we're going to be back to have fun exploring a bit more, and we go our separate ways.

Reaching the main road, Toto and I agree that it was good fun and more time needs to be spent in there. We turn left and head down SH 4 and 3 north to Te Kuiti. I clear some phone calls and we have a light snack of ... well, what else... pies. Toto needs gas, and I reckon we'll make a reasonably straight return to Auckland. Toto thinks otherwise, but I tell him I want to do it without filling up, which gives me about 200km. We do the usual mix of SH 39 and some back roads coming out at Ngaruwahia. Toto wants to do a back route on the way north up SH 1 and I don't have a clue what he's talking about, so once on SH 1, I motion for him to take the lead. It turns out he wants to do Te Ohaki Rd around the back of Huntly to Rangiriri, so we turn off and as we head over the river, we come across our first cop trap. One on the bridge, another parked up on the opposite side. Typical, you give Toto the lead and he leads you straight into a pack of cops

At least we avoided the traffic and boredom of SH 1 and it was a nice change. It was then back to the boredom of SH 1 and along the motorway home.

A nice finish to the weekend and now there are more roads that are now on my list to explore